Legal Woes and Whoa’s
I read recently that two senior executives – both white men – sued their respective companies for discrimination. Racial discrimination. Enter eye roll here.
The first one, who sued AT&T, alleged that the company’s Diversity and Inclusion efforts were aimed to make leadership “less white” and “less male.” As evidence, he used letters and messages from the CEO and other C-level executives about the importance of diversity in the company, and their attempts at hiring and promoting more people of color. Apparently, 12 people were let go as part of a reduction in force, and 9 of them were white men.
The other case, involving Novant Health went all the way to court and the jury found the company guilty of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and awarded that man $10,000,000.
I find myself torn about this.
On one hand, I am a firm believer that we should not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, age, color, or origin. On the other hand, it’s a prime example of how white people coopt the work and struggle of people of color and claim it as their own. It was people of color – black people specifically in this case – who fought for the amendment and fought for the rights and fought to be treated equally under the law.
So when we try to right the wrongs, bring more people of color into positions of leadership, and leverage the diversity to make the company stronger and better, white people feel threatened and use the law against us. To be clear, I am white. So the use of “we” in this case is complicated. I’m part of the “we” that is working to increase the racial and gender diversity in companies. I’m also part of the “we” that is White, and therefore resemble part of the problem. But, that’s for me to work out…probably with my therapist.
So what do we do (“we,” being Diversity Advocators, like myself)?
In my view it’s about addition, not subtraction. The intention of D&I programming is not to “remove the white guys” though I have been known to call the C-Suite “too pale, too male, and too stale.” That doesn’t mean I want them all to be fired. It simply means that I want to add to the pool. And when some of them do leave, through voluntary means or for performance issues, I want to replace them with someone who represents a different race or gender or both. It also means, that I want them to be thinking about their own succession plans, and building a pipeline of people different from them who they can mentor and develop so when they do leave, they have someone ready to step in. It also means, that I want them to – in their positions of power – think about all the systems in place that privileged them and helped them get to where they are and to help change them. It also means that I want them to bring people different from them into the inner circle to help create the strategy, the execution plans, the expansion targets, and more. It also means I want them to be accountable for their impact as a leader, which is best measured by the people that report into them.
So, I’m less torn now. Suing for racial discrimination as a white person is punching down. It’s a power grab. And, I find it pretty gross. I respect the law, but winning $10M for it just feels like a kick in the proverbial balls.
I’m hoping the jury in the AT&T case throws the suit – and the suit – out of the courtroom.
